Area water situation turning grim

Brooktrails Township is down to 80 days supply of water and the City of Willits is considering mandatory rationing unless the rains begin soon.

The Willits city council was advised by staff there was a maximum of 467 acre feet of water stored in its two reservoirs. Before the recent string of icy days and nights, city water users had reduced water use to about 500,000 gallons per day or about 1.5 acre-feet per day. Between pipe breaks and people running water to prevent them, the water usage increased this week to 1.2 million gallons (3.7 acre-feet), according to the Willits water staff.

The actual amount of usable water in the Willits reservoirs is unknown since the project to measure the amount of siltation in city reservoirs was dropped by the city council as a priority after the last water crisis in 2008 ended. City staff told the council Wednesday, there was 61 acre feet in Centennial Reservoir and about 40 acre feet was unusable. Most of the city's water is stored in Morris Reservoir at this time of the year.

With the lack of rain, the council is considering going to a Phase 3 Water Emergency at its next meeting. A Phase 3 emergency requires each residence to limit water usage to no more than 250 gallons per day or 10 units per month. Commercial businesses would be required to reduce usage by 15 percent compared with the prior year. It also prohibits all nonessential water use.

Brooktrails Township has called for voluntary water reductions for township residents, says General Manager Denise Rose. Notices to all township water customers are going out this week. The township has about 80 days of water in storage. The recent bout of cold weather has also resulted in numerous pipe breaks, but an estimate of its impact was not available as of press time.